


anything could happen

by hockeydyke



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Dex is emotionally stunted, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, POV William "Dex" Poindexter, Phallic humor, Unsupervised hockey bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13139142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hockeydyke/pseuds/hockeydyke
Summary: Getting snowed in right before he meant to leave to go home for the holidays isn't exactly the end of the world for Dex. He'll just wait a few days for the roads to clear and then drive out. No, that's not the issue at all-- the issue is that he's snowed in with Nursey, and, well. He's not sure how long he can hide this crush when it's just the two of them.Part of my December 2017 holiday prompt fills!





	anything could happen

Dex knows he’s fucked. Like, sure, he can recognize that this is the most ridiculous crush he’s ever had, but at least he’s self-aware about it. If he really stands back and thinks, he understands that in five years he’ll be able to look back on this and think, jesus, how ridiculous was I, to fall for the teammate who hated me?

 

Maybe in five years he’ll have a boyfriend. It’s hard to imagine-- hell, up until this past year he didn’t even really know that you could be a happy adult  _ and  _ be queer, so it’s still a challenge to imagine himself in that position.

 

Dex knows he’s especially fucked when he’s at Murder Stop & Shop the day after he finishes fall semester finals their junior year, when he's picking up the weird tea that Nursey likes (because of course he drinks tea, that pretentious dick) and the cashier starts chatting to him about it.

 

“Oh, do you usually take honey in this? I’m trying to drink more tea and I don’t know how to make it taste good.”

 

Dex looks down at the box and wrinkles his nose. “Hell, I don’t drink this stuff. It’s for my boyfriend.”

 

“Oh!” The cashier nods and bags the tea. “Well, if you have a chance, ask him and get back to me about that.”

 

“I’ll try,” Dex says, then ducks his head so she can’t see his awful flush and keeps his eyes lowered as he pays and leaves the store. 

 

Jesus. There’s a lot to unpack there. Like, the fact that it felt so right for him to call Nursey his boyfriend? Because it's not quite far from what they are to each other, lately.

 

The thing is, though, that Dex has never felt this way about  _ anybody.  _ Like, sure, he’d had his fair of crushes. From the time he was thirteen, maybe fourteen years old, it was pretty obvious (although he did his best to ignore it) that he was physically attracted to guys. But until he came to Samwell, all of his crushes were the kind of thing he could think about and enjoy privately.

 

This isn’t like that. He thinks about Nursey  _ constantly,  _ and it’s spilling over into every part of his life, and the fact that they now share a room has only made that worse. If he believed in fate, which he didn’t then he’d think it was out to get him just by showing him what he can’t have. 

 

Things Dex Can’t have: Nursey’s shoulders, ridiculously broad, sweaty from a long practice. Nursey’s grumble when Dex’s alarm goes off every morning. Nursey’s stubble during playoffs and weekends and whenever else he doesn’t feel like shaving. Nursey’s laugh. Nursey’s--

 

Well. No need to dwell on it. Basically, Dex is in deep for Nursey, but he can’t date a teammate-- especially not his linemate. They’ve only just settled into a friendship where they can live in the same room and hang out regularly without trying to murder each other. Dex is closer to Nursey than he is to anyone else. Dex can’t ruin that. 

 

He shoves the grocery bag deep inside of his backpack and vows to go to Racist Stop & Shop next time he needs groceries. He can’t risk seeing that cashier again. 

 

Nursey’s sprawled on the ugly green couch when he gets home but Dex manages some half-assed excuse as he rushes past him on his way upstairs. It's kind of a dick move to leave him alone for the evening when they're the only two people left in the Haus. To be fair, though, Dex does mean to get to bed early, because he wants to get an early start driving back home tomorrow so he can make it there before it gets dark. He hates driving in the dark in the winter, especially when the weather’s shitty. 

 

It’s only ten, but he clambers up onto the top bunk and settles in anyway. It’ll just be easier if he’s already asleep by the time Nursey comes upstairs.

 

That’s his motto, recently. He knows he can’t stop feeling this way-- he can just do little things to make it easier on himself.

 

\\_._/

 

Dex wakes up not to his alarm, but rather to Nursey’s hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake.

 

Dex immediately shoves the arm away. You don’t grow up sharing bedrooms with a fuckton of siblings without learning to be always ready to fight even at your most exhausted. “Fuck off,” he mumbles. If his alarm hasn’t gone off, then there’s no need for him to be awake yet.

 

“No, you fuck off!” 

 

The shoving continues for a few more seconds before Dex finally sits up and blinks blearily at Nursey. “What the fuck is it, man?”

 

“Look outside!” Nursey says, nodding at their window.

 

Dex huffs and looks at the window. The snow has drifted too high against the roof right outside their window for him to get a good view, so he has to actually go through the entire process of untangling from his blankets and clambering down to the floor before he can get a good look out of it.

 

Oh. When he does stand in front of it properly, he finds that he still can’t see, because snow is blasting by at high speed. He can hear the whistle of the wind through the thin glass and just the sound of it makes him shiver. Visibility can’t be more than a few inches-- it’s a complete whiteout. 

 

He is suddenly all too aware of Nursey standing behind him. He can feel the warmth of his body pressed almost right up against him, so he whirls around and pushes by him so he can go back to his bunk.

 

“That’s a fucking blizzard,” he says, to Nursey’s fascinated grin. 

 

“My flight’s cancelled,” Nursey says. “Guess I’m here at least until tomorrow.”

 

_ Yeah, me too,  _ Dex thinks, although he doesn’t say it, since it’s obvious. Instead he rolls over and stuffs his face against his pillow and wills sleep to take him soon.

 

He sleeps for another few hours, wakes up, texts his mom to let her know he’ll try driving back tomorrow, and then dutifully avoids Nursey for the next few hours. They’re the last two people left in the Haus-- everyone else has filtered out for winter break during the past few days-- and Dex doesn’t trust himself not to do something stupid, feelings-wise.

 

The few times he does run into Nursey, he does his best to duck his head and ignore Nursey’s hurt expression. Okay, yes, he’s completely avoiding him, which is pretty unusual behavior for best friends.

 

Dex supposes they’re best friends, at least. They do hang out almost 24/7, and even if it is mostly because their team situation necessitates that, it is pretty fun. But it was different during the semester. Sure, they also spent hours on end sprawled on the couch they’d dragged up into their room, hanging on top of each other and watching vine compilations for hours on end, but Dex  _ could  _ have left at any point to go out to the rink or to study on campus or something. Now he’s trapped inside the Haus with just him, his feelings, and the goddamn subject of those feelings.

 

By three in the afternoon he gives up. He just needs some air, is all. That’ll make this manageable. Of course, he does have some sense of self-preservation, so he’s not going out without letting Nursey know, in case he needs a rescue mission or something. It’s still brutally cold outside.

 

He gets his coat and finds Nursey in the kitchen.

 

“Nurse,” he says. Nursey looks up from where he’s trying and failing to boil water. “I’m going for a walk.”

 

“Oh, shit.” Nursey looks out the kitchen window. The snow is still coming down, wind blowing it diagonal. It’s not quite a whiteout but it’s close. “I’ll come. It’ll be like we’re in  _ March of the Penguins.  _ We should totally go exploring.”

 

Well. That’s not exactly what Dex had wanted, but he’ll still be able to get some air, so it’s not the end of the world.

 

Nursey drops what he’s doing and heads right upstairs to grab his snow gear. Dex turns off the stove and follows him. This is going to be great. Bitty never lets them go out into snowstorms because he’s, like, 90% of their impulse control.

 

They make it only a few feet down the front steps and into the yard before it gets hard to walk. Before this weekend the snow had already come up well past Dex’s waist, and with the addition of the several inches that have fallen in the past few hours, the tallest drifts come up nearly to his hips. Scooting his legs even a few inches forward is a workout. 

 

Nursey seems to be struggling about the same amount as he is, so Dex does him a favor and sticks out a leg to trip him. He falls face-first into the snow, yelping ungracefully as he goes.  

 

Nursey is frozen there for a second, and Dex is a little worried he somehow passed out. Then he rises up, face caked with snow, and takes a leap at Dex. Dex isn’t quite sure what he’s doing until he feels a sting on his chest and realizes that Nursey has stuffed a handful of snow down the front of his shirt. 

 

“Brutal,” says Dex, “but I guess that makes us even.”

 

Even so, he tackles Nursey to the ground, just for the sake of keeping the mood light and teasing. That’s what all of this is about-- Dex just has to pretend to be as grumpy and constantly suffering as he always used to be, and things stay the same. Feelings? Fucking conquered. 

 

Their wrestling and rolling brings them as far as the road, which is fine because the entire neighborhood is completely barren. The plows still haven’t been by, so the snow is still significantly high there, too. No cars are driving by any time soon. 

 

“Hey, Dexy,” Nursey says.

Dex is on top of Nursey, straddling him while he tries to sprinkle snow onto his face. He stops for a second. “Yeah?”

 

“Look at that.” Nursey nods across the street, in the direction of the lax house.

 

Dex looks and finds nothing particularly remarkable about it. It looks dark inside. No sign of life. “What?”

 

“It’s empty. Think of the pranking possibilities.” 

 

“Good point,” says Dex. Nursey is right, after all. Now that Ransom and Holster have graduated, it’s especially important that they continue the legacy of the SMH and SML rivalry. Failing to take this opportunity would reflect very, very poorly on the Haus. “Guess we’ll have to think of something extra good.”

 

“Swawesome.” 

 

\\_._/

 

As it turns out, ‘extra good’ is building a snow sculpture right in the lax house’s front lawn. Specifically, it’s a dick made out of snow, six feet tall and as detailed as they can make it in the twenty minutes they spend on the thing. Once it’s complete, Dex flops down on the snow in front of it to get a good look at the final product from below. It certainly is impressive. He just hopes it’ll last the week or so before inhabitants of the house start trickling back to Samwell. 

 

Nursey looks for a second, stroking his chin with his gloved hand like he’s an artist examining his masterpiece. Then he throws himself down on the ground next to Dex. 

 

Unfortunately, because he’s Nursey, he misses by a longshot, and instead ends up on top of Dex. Dex lets out an “oof!” as the wind is knocked out of him, but then finds that Nursey’s face is almost perfectly aligned with his, just an inch or two away. 

 

Really, it’s too close for comfort. It’s intimate. It’s weird to have your face that close to someone without kissing them-- so after swallowing quickly, Dex does.

 

That is-- there, in the shadow of a giant snow penis, Dex kisses Nursey, and Nursey fucking  _ kisses back.  _

 

It might actually be nice, if Dex’s body wasn’t on the verge of shutting down from lack of heat. He kisses Nursey for a blissful few seconds before he’s overcome by a violent shiver. 

 

Nursey’s the one to pull away, although he keeps his forehead pressed against Dex’s. “We should probably get inside if we don’t want to die.”

 

“I love death and dying,” says Dex, automatically. “I’m dead right now.”

 

“You’re such a dork,” Nursey says, then gets to his feet and pulls Dex up with him.

 

They trudge across the yard and up the steps back into the Haus. When they get there and the door is finally shut behind them, Dex finds himself rocking his weight back and forth between his feet, looking down and his boots. The sharp bite of the air outside and the brightness of the snow had made everything feel so clear. Now he’s not sure this was a good idea at all. 

 

A loud thud jerks him out of his head-- the sound of Nursey dropping one of his ugly, preppy snow boots on the ground. Dex looks up to find Nursey moving so fast to get his boots off that he’s about to trip over. He reaches out a hand to Nursey’s shoulder to balance him, and once Nursey looks up to meet his eyes, they both freeze.

 

There’s a beat. Then they’re both stripping off their hats and coats and scarves as fast as they can, and it’s still not nearly fast enough, so Dex is bounding up the stairs while still wrestling out of his fleece, and he can hear Nursey right on his heels, and they’re going up to their room and Dex isn’t entirely positive what’s going to happen next, but he has a feeling that it could be really good.

 

They don’t have to talk about feelings-- not yet. For now, it’s just them and an empty Haus. Anything could happen.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding. 
> 
> I think this might actually be my first time writing Nurseydex? Hopefully I did them justice. I'm not even hugely into getting together fics, but I was really at a loss for ideas for this prompt, so this'll have to do.
> 
> As always, comments are greatly appreciated, and you can find me over on tumblr where I'm @hockeydyke.


End file.
